Warning for North Wales farmers as TB cattle slaughter figures surge again

New herd breakdowns fell 5% last year but the number of cattle culled climbed 12%. With a handful of farmers flouting movement rules, Cardiff is to review compensation arrangements as the country's compensation bill continues to grow

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In a statement to Plenary today, the minister said current TB compensation bills were “unsustainable” and a review of the current system would be held “at an appropriate time”.

Her officials are also looking at ways to reduce the on-farm shooting of TB reactor cattle to limit the distress to affected producers.

Bovine TB map of Wales showing the country's regional treatment areas

Overall, Wales’s TB figures for 2018 make for mixed reading. Last year there were 746 new herd incidents – down 5% on 2017 – but slaughter figures rose 12% compared with 2017, when Wales’ regionalised TB treatment strategy was introduced.

These figures are attributed to the greater use of gamma-testing, removal of Inconclusive Reactors (IRs) and severe interpretation of the skin test. As a result many herds were closed 60 days longer than in previous years.

A total of 11,305 animals were killed in 2018, fuelling a £2m rise in the compensation bill to around £13m.

In October alone 1,499 animals were culled, the highest number in any single month since records began. November yielded the second highest ever monthly slaughter figure, though vets stress that testing always peaks in the winter when cattle are housed.

For this reason the Welsh Government is allow farmers and their vets to try out “novel” testing techniques that have not been sanctioned by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

These include the Actiphage test developed at Nottingham University and used in trials on a Devon farm by vet Dick Sibley. A second test, qPCR, which detects bTB in dung, has also produced promising results.

A handful of vets in Wales are said to be considering the use of such tests.

“Keep it out” visits for TB-free herds, involving farms’ own vets, have also been arranged under the Cymorth TB scheme. Privately, however, Cardiff has expressed frustration at the limited uptake by cattle farmers in north east Wales.

A number of small badger vaccination projects have been introduced across Wales, mainly by wildlife groups.

However a larger vaccination project, involving farmers and the National Trust on The Gower, is set to get underway following local badger sett surveys in the area.